Letters to the editor

I’m not going to vote for Maria Palmer for Chapel Hill Town Council. I can’t, because I live in Carrboro. But I urge Chapel Hill voters to get her working for you on the Town Council.

She’s a dynamo of civic energy. As a member of the State Board of Education and an educator at N.C. A&T University, as a founder of Iglesia Unido de Cristo and of Mi Escuelita pre-school, as a voice on local school committees and on the Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan committee, Maria has been involved in our community for years. Her record shows that she’s unrelenting in the pursuit of fairness, confident in expressing her views to whomever needs to hear them and dedicated in advocating for the rights and well-being of all local residents. On the Town Council she’ll continue to be a positive force for all of us.

Merle Thorpe

Carrboro

Swinton for council

When you go to the store, do you always buy the same kind of snack? Or do you want things that are different? The same idea can be applied to this year's Town Council race: I'm the different snack.

The youngest of nine candidates, I stand out from the crowd. However, my ideas are unique to the race, and they deserve one of your four votes. My goal is to make Chapel Hill a town with zero tolerance for domestic and sexual violence. This includes creating a domestic violence shelter and a bystander intervention program to enhance town awareness and resources available to survivors. Next, we must work on the transit system. I want to provide split-weekend service on Saturdays and Sundays until enough funding is available for continuous service.

Like many residents, I have struggled to find long-term, good-paying work. Having been unemployed for months, I can empathize with some of our least fortunate. Yet I only can imagine the pains of our homeless population. Because of this, I plan to work diligently to assist our homeless. These citizens are in that situation due to the lack of opportunities our town provides for work, affordable housing, or mental health. We have to educate ourselves and remove the impression we must fear and alienate our homeless.
At the polls, consider those who are voiceless in most town processes. Come Tuesday, let me be the councilperson who gives them one.